Top 10 Roman Emperors – Aurelian, the Hero Rome Didn’t Deserve
#7: Aurelian – 214/215 – 275 (ruled 270–275)
You know that hero everyone needs but doesn’t deserve? Gotham has theirs; Batman is a hero with his heart in the right place but is eventually vilified by the very people he’s saving. Who is Rome’s Batman? Why it’s none other than Aurelian.
Lucius Domitius Aurelianus Augustus held the shortest reign of all the emperors on this list. He reigned for only five years, so what exactly could he have done that merits a spot in the top 10? The short answer: he was clutch AF during the empire’s darkest years.
GOAT Born Into Poverty
Aurelian was born on either 214 or 215 in Illyricum (modern-day Croatia). He came from humble beginnings; his father was a peasant farmer. The best way for the lower class to get out of poverty in Ancient Rome was to join the army. So he became a soldier at the age of 20, rose through the ranks, and became prominent enough to serve under the armies of a couple of emperors.
Aurelian lived during Rome’s most difficult time. From 235 to 285, the Roman Empire experienced a chaotic 50-year period known as the Crisis of the Third Century. During this time, the empire was attacked externally by Germanic tribes from the north and the Persians from the east. At the same time, plague, economic crisis, famine, and civil war were tearing it apart from the inside.
To put things into context, this period was so chaotic, that Rome had 26 different emperors during these 50 years. For my quant-focused readers, that’s 1.9 years per emperor. That means Aurelian ruled way longer than the average! Major props to our boi Aurelian!
Rise to Power
Aurelian served under Emperor Gallienus’s (ruled 253-268) army and is believed to have participated in his assassination. Gallienus was a well-meaning emperor, and if we ranked emperors on their intentions and not results, he’d be on this list. But alas, his intentions did not deliver results, which led to some of his generals believing they could do better.
Gallienus’s assassination was a ploy to get Claudius II (no, not the Claudius at #9 on this list) on the throne.
And I know what you’re thinking; Gallienus ruled three times as long as Aurelian! Why is he not on this list? While Gallienus contributed some useful reforms, he ultimately doesn’t make the cut. Some parts of the empire broke away from Rome and he failed to gain them back. His own dad and co-emperor, Valerian, was captured by the Persians in battle in 260, plunging Rome into an unnecessary series of attempted usurpations that Gallienus had to fight off.
However, Aurelian was able to pick up the pieces dropped by Gallienus as we will later see.
When Claudius II died over a year later in 270, the Senate declared his brother, Quintillus, as Roman Emperor. However, as was very characteristic during this period, Aurelian’s troops felt that their own leader would be better on the throne. Aurelian’s troops defeated those of Quintillus in battle, and the Senate then declared Aurelian the emperor.
Now that he was emperor, Aurelian focused his attention on solving Rome’s biggest problems. The first was to recover land they had lost during the Crisis.
GOATs Possess the Clutch Gene
Many of Rome’s provinces had their own problems to deal with, and as the capital was too busy worrying about itself, local leadership stepped up to take care of the crisis. Two “empires” declared their independence from Rome during this time.
The first was the Gallic Empire to the northwest, which contained the island of Britain and modern-day France and Belgium. The other was the Palmyrene Empire to the east, which contained Egypt, modern-day southeastern Turkey, and Syria.
Before setting his sights on a reconquest, Aurelian had to settle a couple of things closer to home.
First, he had to expel some Germanic tribes out of Italy. Throughout the existence of Rome both as a Republic and Empire, nomadic peoples from northern Europe were consistently a nuisance. They crossed into Roman territory to raid Roman settlements for food, supplies, gold, and whatever else they could get their hands on. These harassers were the Germanic tribes.
Think of the Germanic tribes as doing what modern-day xenophobes think immigrants from other countries will do to them. Well, except that Germanic tribes didn’t take your job, just everything that you earned from it!
Aurelian spent much of his military career combatting Germanic tribes. Fighting these tribes is how he established himself as not just brave, but as a winner. During his time as emperor he led his army to numerous victories in battle over these Germanic tribes. Despite suffering a setback in northern Italy against the Alemanni tribe, Aurelian promptly recovered and routed the Germanic invaders, expelling them out of Italy.
When a winner like Aurelian takes an L, there has to be some concern for the damage the Germanics can cause. The people of Rome were afraid of their return. Aurelian, seeing that the city of Rome’s defenses were not up to par, built a strong set of defensive walls around the city. These walls are rightfully named the Aurelian Walls, and are actually still around in Rome today.
The second thing Aurelian took care of was abandoning the province of Dacia… Wait, I thought his goal was to regain land, not abandon it?
Trajan (ruled 98-117) conquered and annexed this province in the year 106. It covers land mostly in modern-day Romania, and Trajan commissioned the construction of a spectacular bridge, very creatively named Trajan’s Bridge, across the banks of the Danube River. The Danube River was a natural border that separated the northern part of the Roman Empire from the rest of Europe.
Trajan built this bridge as a way to allow troops occupying the province to receive food and supplies. It existed for 165 years until Aurelian decided to destroy it. Yes, Aurelian destroyed what was probably a Wonder of the World at that time.
Why? Because it was not sustainable for Rome to hold Dacia… it was too vulnerable to invasion from the aforementioned Germanic tribes. There was hardly any benefit in losing troops defending that land. So Aurelian withdrew his troops and Roman citizens that were inhabiting the land also came long. In their place, a group of friendly Germanic tribes settled there, acting as a buffer to prevent hostile tribes from crossing into the empire’s borders.
So yes, Rome did lose some land, but that’s okay, because Aurelian was about to regain Rome’s money maker, Egypt.
Roman Reconquest
Zenobia was the queen of the Palmyrene Empire and had taken over for her husband, Odaenathus, after his assassination. Note: it’s not known how or why Odaenathus was assassinated, as historians don’t even agree on where it all happened!
Zenobia had stopped grain shipments from Egypt to Rome when Palmyra broke away from the empire. Since Aurelian’s people were running low on bread, in 272, the first target of his reconquest became the Palmyrene Empire.
Within a span of six months, Aurelian reached Palmyra. Many cities had surrendered to him on the way when they saw he was merciful. He tried a similar approach with Palmyra, but Zenobia refused to surrender.
As the Romans laid siege to the city, it became clear that Palmyra would fall eventually. Zenobia and her son attempted to flee east towards Persia, hoping they’d be granted asylum there.
Upon Zenobia’s flight, the city of Palmyra surrendered. Aurelian spared the city and installed a peacekeeping force to ensure they complied with the re-integration back into the empire.
Aurelian’s troops eventually captured Zenobia as she attempted to flee. She was put on trial along with Palmyra’s high-ranking generals. The generals were executed, while Zenobia and her son were paraded around the streets of Rome when Aurelian celebrated his triumph.
Aurelian was a hero after these events, as he restored the grain shipments from Egypt, gaining favor with the Roman people. Palmyra would rebel in 273, and Aurelian led his army to the east to sack the city. Palmyra never recovered from this, and the ruins of the city are still around today in the Syrian Desert.
Out west, Aurelian’s reconquest of the Gallic Empire wasn’t that lit. Tetricus sat on the throne of the Gallic Empire, and through diplomacy, he submitted to Aurelian. However, Tetricus did not want to make it seem this way, so he agreed to lead his army into battle against Aurelian’s, and abandoned them before the battle began. Aurelian then made short work of his army, and gave Tetricus a cushy position in Italy.
Aurelian was an effective administrator. He instituted many economic and religious reforms around the empire.
Economically, his main focus was to fight corruption. The Roman Empire printed coins within its own capital, where… am I reading this right? Where the ruling class had access to the money supply?
Instead, Aurelian moved the coin minting away from the capital to strategic locations within the empire. Now, the elites living in Rome had less opportunity to manipulate the money supply and possibly line their own pockets. This also facilitated transportation of coins across the empire, making sure that paychecks reached the pockets of Roman soldiers.
Religiously, Aurelian promoted the Roman Sun God, Sol Invictus, as the dominant god for worship. He wanted everyone across the empire to worship this god, and built a dedicated temple in Rome on December 25th, 274. Wait… December 25th… That’s a pretty familiar date isn’t it?
Aurelian’s worship of Sol Invictus laid the foundation for the popularization of monotheism – the belief in one god. We are still about 40 years away from Constantine’s (ranked higher up on this list) conversion to Christianity, but this focus on worshipping a single deity served as a gateway for the empire’s eventual acceptance of monotheism.
The Festival of Sol Invictus was from then on celebrated on December 25th. Even the Christians of the empire celebrated this with the pagan Romans. And yes, this is partly why Christmas is celebrated on December 25th. Centuries after, a Christian council determined that the church would officially recognize and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on this day.
Downfall and Legacy
In 275, Aurelian was preparing to campaign against a weakened Persian Empire, but unfortunately this never materialized. Again, Aurelian hated corruption and was thus a disciplinarian against shady people. He had a knack for being strict on his troops, and harshly punished any wrongdoers. This characteristic would lead to his demise.
One of his secretaries had lied to him on a very minor issue, and fearing that Aurelian would find out and harshly punish him, he falsified a document with a list of names of army generals Aurelian planned to execute. He showed this document to those generals, and Aurelian’s own bodyguards assassinated him.
In just five short years, Aurelian saved Rome from a crumbling demise. Without him, it is likely the empire would have fallen much sooner. The western half of the empire lived another 200 years after his death, while the eastern half continued for over 1000.
And the icing on the cake? He laid the foundation for the most wonderful time of the year!
“What could’ve been” is a big question that I like to ponder about Aurelian. Had he ruled much longer, he would’ve had the opportunity to firmly establish political stability and even an heir to the throne, thus ending the Crisis of the Third Century sooner than it actually did. Aurelian was the hero that Rome needed, but didn’t deserve. He didn’t die a hero, he lived long enough to see himself (unjustly) become a villain.
